Power amplifiers are generally used to amplify signals for transmission in a communications system. Such transmission can occur wirelessly between a transmitter and one or more receivers, or an output of a power amplifier can be coupled to a cable or transmission line to route a transmitted signal to one or more receivers. Various trade-offs can exist relating to configuration and operation of a power amplifier. For example, in communication systems using a digital modulation scheme or other scheme where coherent demodulation will be performed at the receiver, a linearity specification for power amplifier operation can be relatively stringent as compared to other applications. In one approach, in order to enhance linearity (and thereby reduce one or more of distortion or noise), a power amplifier can be operated using a fixed power supply or using a fixed signal provided to a drain input in the example of an RF power amplifier topology including one or more field-effect transistors (FETs). Using a fixed supply, an operating point of the amplifier can be established such that even peak values of an input signal do not drive the power amplifier into amplitude compression. However, use of a fixed supply specified to provide operation well away from amplitude compression generally comes at a cost of lower efficiency, particularly a lower “drain efficiency.” Such a lower efficiency can result in a significant proportion of power supplied to the power amplifier (generally more than 90%) being dissipated as heat. In one approach, if a higher efficiency is desired, a power amplifier can instead be operated closer to—or even within—a range where amplitude compression occurs. However, such an approach can have disadvantages, because such compression is a non-linear behavior and as mentioned above, such non-linearity can result in unwanted distortion or noise in the amplified signal to be transmitted.